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by Arthur Miller, directed by Christopher Newton

Theatre Aquarius, Dofasco Centre, Hamilton

January 18-February 2, 2008

“Worth Every Penny“

Theatre Aquarius has mounted a fine new production of Arthur Miller’s 1968 drama “The Price”.  So many present and former Shaw Festival members are involved it feels like a winter bonus production to the Shaw’s regular season.  The play is one of Miller’s most ambiguous.  Unlike his “Death of Salesman”, “A View from the Bridge” or “The Crucible”, Miller is not attempting to write a modern tragedy.  Instead, he seems more inspired by Shakespeare’s problem plays like “Measure for Measure” or “All’s Well That Ends Well”, in which a fundamentally insoluble problem is illuminated but not resolved.

“The Price” is set in the jumbled attic of a New York brownstone about to be torn down, recreated on stage by designer Cameron Porteous with a wonderful mixture of chaos and order.  For sixteen years it has stored the crowded furniture and other paraphernalia of the Franz brothers’ parents, but now the younger brother Victor has come to sell it off.  The prospect fills him with anxiety and remorse, but his wife Esther is mostly concerned that he get as much money as possible for it so they can retire happily.  With the arrival of the 90-year-old Gregory Solomon, a humorous but worldly wise former antiques dealer and appraiser, the play seems to be headed for comedy.  But then Victor’s elder brother Walter appears and the issues that led to their complete estrangement for the past sixteen years overcome any attempt at reconciliation.

In Victor’s version of events, the stock market crash of 1929 ruined his wealthy parents not only financially but as people.  Victor’s mother died shortly afterwards but his father remained like a living ghost in his house believing he had no friends in the world.

Walter’s reaction to the situation was to escape and become a successful doctor.  Victor, however, sacrificed the career he dreamed of in science to look after his father and became a policeman instead.  Now about to turn 50, Victor looks back on his life with bitterness and can’t contemplate what he will do in retirement.  Walter, however, presents Victor and Esther with a very different version of events that make it appear that Victor knowingly, not out of necessity, sacrificed his career.  Walter tells Victor that Victor’s life has been based on a lie that Victor constructed in which Walter was cast as the villain.

Unlike Ibsen’s The Wild Duck” where the revelation of a family’s “life lie” leads to tragedy, here the revelation leads to a chastening and seems to bring Victor and Esther closer together.  In his “Author’s Production Note” at the end of the play, Miller warns his actors that “a fine balance of sympathy should be maintained in the playing of the roles of Victor and Walter”.  This is because Miller has cast such grave doubt over the rightness of the actions of both brothers.  In his first engagement with Theatre Aquarius, this is precisely how former Artistic Director of the Shaw Festival Christopher Newton directs the play.  For the play’s entire first act we know only Victor’s side of the story and naturally tend to side with him.  Once, the two brothers’ argument is in full swing, you will find your allegiance switching from one to the other as they bring forth more information about the past and their motives.  To achieve this requires an insightful director like Newton who knows that ambiguity is the very point of the play.  The irony in the play as in life is that we don’t know if we’ve paid the right price until we’ve paid it.

To achieve this also requires a top-notch cast.  This Theatre Aquarius has in Dan Lett, Peter Hutt, Brigitte Robinson and Peter Millard—all familiar actors from the Shaw Festival and all but Millard making their first appearance with Theatre Aquarius.  As Victor, Lett shows a highly conflicted person from the moment he enters.  His character feels uncomfortable in his uniform and in this attic, signs we soon discover that he is uncomfortable with who he is.  His view of Solomon reflects our growing sympathy for Victor as it gradually changes from annoyance to appreciation.  We feel that if he can appreciate this old man, a kind of stand-in father figure, then there is hope for him.  As Walter, Hutt has the difficult task of entering after his character has been vilified for about an hour, but he succeeds in projecting his character so sincerely that soon after he begins telling his side of the story he begins to win us over.  We’re torn then between Victor, who is likeable but perhaps self-deluded, and Walter, who is not likeable but perhaps correct.

Esther functions as a kind of counterpoise to Victor during Act 1, her materialistic concerns balancing his obscure moral concerns.  In Act 2 her shift in allegiance from Walter to Victor is extremely important and shows a depth of feeling for Victor we had begun to think was absent.  Robinson’s Esther is very strong and she conveys Esther’s change of attitude with subtlety as if Esther were suddenly humbled when she learns of Victor’s real feelings and motivations.  As a counterpoise to the entire drama of Victor, Esther and Walter is the comedy of Solomon, superbly played by Millard, who avoids all temptation to mar his portrayal with shtick.  He makes Solomon, in some ways, the most interesting character in the play.  While the three younger characters are weighed down by the past, Solomon, a Jew who escaped Europe for the States and has gone through four wives, represents the ability to survive bout after bout of adversity.  Miller uses Solomon’s presence and practicality deliberately to mitigate the potential tragedy of the brothers’ quarrel.  Thus, Miller presents us with both an ambiguity about past events and an ambiguity of dramatic tone.

Miller seems to have created “The Price” as a springboard for discussion and you may well find yourself debating who was right and who was wrong long after the final curtain.  Such a fine production of such a fascinating but seldom-seen play deserves to draw an audience from far beyond Hamilton to Theatre Aquarius.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.

Photo: Dan Lett in The Old Ways. ©Graham Huber.